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Juvenile Justice Department wants to stop locking up minor offenders

State program changes

ATLANTA - State juvenile justice officials want to get rid of a program they say takes children who have committed minor offenses and locks them up with those who've committed violent crimes.

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Under the program, children who have committed offenses such as skipping school or breaking curfew end up locked up for up to 90 days.

There, they end up "palling around with our designated felons," said Bill Reilly, chief of staff at the Department of Juvenile Justice.

And research shows they often get into more trouble once they are released.

But doing away with the program would require repealing a 1994 law. The law gives juvenile court judges broad authority to sentence children up to 90 days in one of Georgia's youth prisons.

Department of Juvenile Justice officials are hoping to get support from Gov. Sonny Perdue for a substitute plan during upcoming budget discussions.

The current program grew out of Georgia's crackdown on juvenile crime a decade ago, which created 90-day military-style boot camps. After it was decided the boot camps were not rehabilitating children, Orlando Martinez, who was Department of Juvenile Justice commissioner at the time, phased them out in 2000.

But judges' authority to lock up a wide range of young offenders for up to 90 days remains on the books.

"There have been armed robbers sent there side by side with shoplifters," said Pete Colbenson, executive director of the Children and Youth Coordinating Council. "The program is open to virtually any juvenile offender coming before the court."

More than half of the children locked up under the program had no prior criminal record and probably should have remained in their communities on supervised probation, the Department of Juvenile Justice says.

To make their plan more appealing to judges, Juvenile Justice officials propose sending $10 million of the department's budget to juvenile courts. About $200,000 a year in grants would go to each of the state's 49 judicial circuits, officials said. The money could be used to create or strengthen local programs for truancy prevention, alcohol and drug counseling, anger management or other ideas.

In addition to the grants, Juvenile Justice officials propose a "probation sanction program." The program would be aimed at children who have already had a brush with the law and are on probation.

The program is designed to swiftly punish young offenders who violate probation, while including treatment to reduce their risk of getting into more trouble, officials say. The sanctions would get more serious with each probation violation.

The new plan is getting mixed reactions from juvenile court judges around the state.

John Worcester-Holland, chief juvenile court judge in Gilmer, Fannin and Pickens counties, said he supports the new plan because his communities need more programs for troubled children.

"Everything that I have seen in terms of literature says that the 90-day program is not particularly effective," Worcester-Holland said. "Then what's the point of sending kids off for that long? I'm willing to try anything."

But some judges say the money the Department of Juvenile Justice is offering is too little money to establish effective local programs.

Bill Tribble is the juvenile court judge for Laurens, Johnson, Treutlen and Twiggs counties in Middle Georgia. He would like to set up mental health, sexual abuse treatment and other programs for youngsters in his circuit, but said he can't imagine how to do that with $200,000.

"Yes, I would work with DJJ," Tribble said. "But I need more money than that. Then we'd do a really good job."